Former Midlander unveils debut CD this week

Roger Bryantfor the Daily News

Published 8:00 pm, Thursday, August 13, 2009

Former Midland resident Joe Settineri, who has performed in musicals from Los Angeles to London and whose debut CD was released this week, gives a lot of credit for his success to the teachers he had growing up.

Settineri, a 1991 graduate of Bullock Creek High School, studied voice with the late Gwendolyn Pike.

"She just really cultivated and encouraged singing - a wonderful and amazing teacher," he said in a phone interview from New York.

He also praised his music teachers at Bullock Creek, where he played French horn. "What they were able to teach us and teach me - they were pretty amazing."

His parents, William and Marian Settineri, moved to the Finger Lakes area of New York a few years ago. Joe splits his time between New York City and Los Angeles.

Settineri's debut CD, "Stay," is "a little deeper" than just a set of love songs, he said. "The writing I did was things we all deal with every single day. I just write about the things that I've gone through and I deal with … songs about a budding romance, a romance that's just ended, songs about a lifetime of love."

While his songs bring out the "more ballad-y, sensitive side of me," producer Brian Irwin had the idea of taking the songs and putting them into the hands of Econoline Crush lead guitarist Ziggy Sigmund and some other rockers.

"We've got some really great sounds," Settineri said. "We added a lot of elements from different genres."

The CD happened because Settineri met Sigmund when both were doing yoga. Without knowing that Sigmund is an accomplished musician with Grammy nominations, Settineri shared some of his music.

Settineri, 35, has performed in musicals since he appeared in one at Pine River Elementary School. He later performed with Teen Musicals Inc.

After high school, Settineri attended the University of Michigan and studied business. He moved to Silicon Valley after graduation, and worked for Intel Corp., eventually rising to director of finance.

He was doing his music on the side, and he eventually made the choice to dive in to music. He moved to Los Angeles and focused on theater, appearing in "The Who's Tommy" and "The Full Monty."

While he did a fair amount of television and film work, he drew considerable attention in Los Angeles and New York in the show "Town Without Pity."

"I met a lot of people who talked to me about recording," he said.

Now that his CD has been released, he is closer to his goals - to "express myself as an artist and write music. It's a real soul-searching process when you're writing, recording and performing."

Settineri will be performing in the New York area and in Los Angeles in support of his CD, and said he would love to play Midland.

"It was a great place to grow up. A lot of values I have because of where I grew up," he said.